"This program is a special opportunity for undergraduate students enrolled at Indiana University—Bloomington with exemplary academic records and who have identified Indiana Law as their first choice for obtaining a legal education.

In order to facilitate a more streamlined application process and forge an early connection with future students who maintain such close physical proximity, the Law School will waive the LSAT requirement for students maintaining an undergraduate GPA of 3.8 or better. Applicants will be required to complete our application form and submit a personal statement, letters of recommendation, SAT/ACT score report and undergraduate transcript, as well as an additional essay outlining your interest in this program and the Direct Admit Agreement Form. The applicant will also be asked to interview with the Law School’s Admissions Office. The application fee will be waived for students applying through this program.

We hope that this effort will strengthen our connection with the undergraduate campus and help create a transition year when students can be involved with both communities. Transition year activities will include a luncheon series with law school faculty and administrators, opportunities to develop relationships with current law students and inclusion on internal law school communications in order to facilitate frequent attendance at student organization events."

Law schools that don't use the LSAT are shunned by the ABA. The refusal of the Massachusetts School of Law to require the LSAT was among several disputes that led to years of fighting with the ABA over its refusal to accredit the non-traditional law school. (Having lost in court, at this point the law school says it no longer wants ABA recognition and can operate without it.) The Massachusetts School of Law requires all applicants to have interviews and to take an essay test it has developed, and argues that its method helps to identify talented students who might not have earned great LSAT scores.

Lawrence R. Velvel, the dean of the school, said that the LSAT "is all about elitism -- it's about saying your law school is better than another law school because you have better LSAT scores." While Velvel said his law school does not track students' race and ethnicity, he said that well more than one fourth of students are from minority groups and that many students come from relatively modest economic backgrounds. The "interests of the public at large," he said, demand that law schools not rely on tests on which wealthy students have advantages.